Night Shift (video game)

Night Shift is an action and puzzle where the company LucasArts (formerly Lucasfilm Games ) from the year 1990., The player controls a character ( Fred and Fiona FixIt ) with the keyboard, whose job it is, as workers on the night shift of a toy factory a fictitious company IML maintain production of dolls (similar to Industrial Light and Magic, a real company of Lucasfilm empire ).

Gameplay

The character jumps while on platforms and conveyor belts of the production plant ( in the game called BEAST ) along and has to switch, press buttons and levers to the production of one per level ( called in the game layer) specified quantity of certain figures with changing colors within a time limit to reach. At higher levels more parts of the machine will be unlocked and must be operated manually by the player. Prior to activation, these machine parts are indicated in outline behind red faces and automatically produce the corresponding parts.

The contracts will be awarded in each stage of a foreman. After several successful completion of Levels rewarded the game with an animation in which the character on the path are shown home. The house is improved with increasing success, which visualizes the player's ongoing success. The success is also measured in the earned salary of the player character that is entered and stored in a highscore list.

The game has 30 levels, with no saving is possible, but the level above codes must be selected (consisting of several fruits ).

At higher levels the game is complicated by other actors who are trying to hinder the player in his work:

  • A lawyer trying to close the company and sabotage, in which he reflected the character with a contract and this stunned momentarily.
  • Two lemmings ( presumably after Lemmings ) have sneaked onto the grounds and try the player to either slow down or adjust knobs and buttons of the plant, which leads to a defective production by massive displays of affection.

In the Hotseat mode for two players, the players had the same level after another to complete, which expired just like in single player mode.

The BEAST

The original and very quirky production plant BEAST ( " Bingham 's Environmentally Active Solution for Toys" ) consists mostly of parts from the junk yard and household items. Thus, the central component for mixing the raw materials from a discarded washing machine, the quality control of a boxing glove was manufactured.

The game world extends vertically across multiple screens; scrolling in the horizontal direction does not occur.

The parts of the machine are designed very colorful and imaginative, the game world is divided into several sections:

  • Material creation
  • Pressing the plastic into molds
  • Painting of the body and the trunk
  • Assembling the parts and quality control
  • Warehousing

Copy and equipment

The game has an at that time usual code disk, which is used to overcome a query on startup. The program itself has no other technical protection measures, the manual calls even expressly to establish a backup. But resourceful hobbyist dismantled the wheel and simply copied the parts on a photocopier.

In the pack there is also the " IML employee manual", describes which parts of the BEAST. Some pages are however (intentionally ) blurred or missing, so the player must explore these elements themselves. Next are at even a quick start guide and some tips for the first layers. The package also contains an article by the fictitious "Toy Executive" magazine about IML and the BEAST.

  • Computer game 1990
  • Jump ' n' Run
  • Amiga game
  • Amstrad CPC game
  • C64 Game
  • DOS game
  • Sinclair game
  • USK without classification
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